Social responsiveness in children with developmental coordination disorder.

BACKGROUND: Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in performing motor tasks. Research suggests social skills are also altered.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate (1) whether the presence of DCD affects social responsiveness, (2) whether the co-occurrence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects social responsiveness in children with DCD, and (3) whether there is an association between motor performance and social responsiveness in children with DCD.

METHODS: Based on parental reports, children aged 5 to 15.5 years were assigned to one of three groups: DCD only (NoASD, n = 67), DCD and suspected ASD (sASD, n = 13), and DCD and confirmed ASD (cASD, n = 22). Parental answers to the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2) and the DCD-Questionnaire (DCD-Q) were compared to norm values using one sample t-tests, and between groups using ANOVA and MANOVA. Pearson correlation coefficients explored the relationship between the SRS-2 and DCD-Q in the total group and per group.

RESULTS: Compared to norm values, difficulties in all areas of social responsiveness were reported in children with DCD, regardless of group (p<0.001). Compared to the noASD group, more unfavorable SRS-2 total T-scores and poorer DCD-Q scores were observed in sASD and cASD groups. Only in the total group, motor performance showed significant weak to moderate associations with the SRS-2 total T-score and all subscales except for 'social motivation' (r=-0.306 to -0.405; p ≤ 0.02).

CONCLUSION: Social responsiveness difficulties are more common in children with DCD and are more severe in the ASD groups. Motor performance and social responsiveness are weak to moderately associated.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05092893 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05092893).